China says suspect in explosions died in blasts

BEIJING (AP) — China's state news agency reported Friday that a man suspected of being responsible for 18 explosions in a southern Chinese county that killed 10 people and injured 51 others died in the blasts and had disputes with local villagers and companies.

State media had previously reported that 17 explosions triggered by bomb devices in mail packages went off Wednesday afternoon in Liucheng and surrounding areas in China's Guangxi region. Another explosion hit a house Thursday.

Suspect Wei Yinyong, 33, made timed explosive devices and either planted them or hired people to deliver them, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing police in Liuzhou city, which administers Liucheng county.

Xinhua said Wei had disputes with villagers and companies engaged in quarry-related production.

It also said that 10 people died, rather than the seven previously reported. A DNA analysis determined that Wei was among those killed, Xinhua said.

The explosions Wednesday afternoon hit a hospital, markets, a shopping mall, a bus station and several government buildings.

They came on the eve of a seven-day national holiday in the country, a time when tens of millions of Chinese travel.

There have been a series of cases in China in which people with grievances or who were involved in feuds have used homemade bombs to blow up themselves and others, although the number of bombs used in the small county of Liucheng appears unprecedented.

Bombs are often the weapon of choice because firearms are tightly controlled and difficult to obtain.